Legitimate??

[Bareknees1]

I know we have wonderful and reputable vetted vendors on site. When I am "googling" away for kilt related items, the "Scottish Trading Company" often pops up. I've seen threads on other "Scottish" companies exposed as holding US addresses for out of country enterprises(Pakistan, etc). Any experience with this company or knowledge of legitamacy. Their contact is a po Box which raises some suspicions. Thanks

[Bareknees1]

...and someday I'll learn to spell. sorry.

[sydnie7]

Here's their Facebook page. Looks like a reseller based in KY. I do note two posts asking if they have a physical store or are just POBox/Internet -- no answer from the company.

[Bareknees1]

Sydnie7 ,thanks for the input. Same sort of experience I've run into trying to check up. I'll stay with the legit crowd.

[RockyR]

Speaking generally (as I have no personal experience with this particular company), I only buy things online from companies with a brick and mortar retail presence SOMEWHERE. PO boxes scare me. I don't know if it's a kid in his basement with a computer and pretty pictures OR a warehouse full of product ready to ship. Knowing a company has a physical store adds a level of mental "security" for me when making a purchase, kilt related or not.

[Mack]

Hello. I am Matt one of the owners of The Scottish Trading Company. We have been in business for many, many years and I can assure you that we are very legitimate. We are based here in Kentucky near Louisville. We are a family owned and operated business and are not a holding company of anyone else. Just us, Scottish- American Owned and Operated. You can find many posts about us on this forum and we hold many of the frequent posters and other business on here as personal friends.(which is how we heard about this inquiry) As far as brick and mortar store, no we do not have a permanent "Store Front". We determined years ago that this was not cost effective in this day and age as our walk in customers in the area were few and we had to add the cost of operating it to our online and Highland Games Customers. There are many of us Scottish Importers that have adapted to the new way of doing business and are only online or at Highland Games. Our only permanent building and store front is at The Kentucky Highland Renaissance Faire, which we have operated every year for the last 8 years, if you would like to visit us there please do, we would love to see everyone as we have a great time in 14th century Scotland! We also attend (and have been attending for many years)as vendors many Highland games in The Eastern and Southern parts of The US every year. We also have a toll free number which is 1-877-224-8299, if you ever have any questions.

[OldManKennedy]

In 2010, this thread shows they had a tent at the Williamsburg Scottish Festival:
http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...-2010-a-61765/

In doing a WHOIS lookup on the domain name, scottishtradingcompany.com, this was the result for the owner:
Registrant Name: Steven Martell
Registrant Organization: The Scottish Trading Company
Registrant Street: XXXXX
Registrant City: La Grange
Registrant State/Province: Kentucky
Registrant Postal Code: 40031
Registrant Country: United States
Registrant Phone: .502XXXXXXXX
Registrant Email: smartell@scottishtradingcompany.com

That address is a residential address, but as they have a PO Box, they probably prefer to not have their mailman hate them with all the shipments back & forth. I have X'd out the specific info, though it is there in public records should you chose to see it.

Hope this helps.

OMK

[Mack]

Yes, Old Man Kennedy, Steve is our Website Technical Manager. Thank you for Xing out his personal information. Yes, our mailman would boycott us if she was responsible for delivery and taking all the packages we have coming and going everyday! lol!

[Kylahullu]

Had a look at The Scottish Trading Company web page. They advertise for $89.99 a kilt in 16oz heavy weight poly viscose, imported from Scotland. This reminded me of seeing something about the existence of 16oz poly viscose:

If you see a kilt advertised as costing $100.00 and they say it is P/V, I'm sorry, it's not. If they are advertising 16oz P/V, again, I'm sorry but that is just not true.

Nothing to do with being legitimate or not but interesting, maybe.

[Bareknees1]

Matt, appreciate your response. Tough finding info, and as we all know, the internet can be a risky place in this day and age.